Man machine interface

• US 4,570,217 A
• Filed: 03/28/1983
• Issued: 02/11/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1982
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Schneider Automation Incorporated (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Gould, Inc. (Transdigm Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Brown, Michael, King, Bruce A., Hudnall, Richard E., Dziezanowski, Joseph J., Hunt, Philip G., Doig, Robert C., Bromberg, Michael A., Allen, Bruce S., Kimerer, Brian S., Thakrar, Kiran, Lapidus, Stanely N., Sirois, Andrew F., Poirer, Bruce A., Friedel, Seymour A., Dunalvey, Michael R., Gilbert, Daniel R., DuPrie, Harold J., Carlson, Anne M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruggiero, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US06/479,191
• Time in Patent Office: 1,051 Days
• Field of Search: 364/188, 364/189, 364/167-171, 364/191-193, 364/200, 364/900, 340/701-704, 340/706, 340/707, 340/711, 340/712, 340/720, 340/721, 340/722
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 2075/025 two
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36168 Touchscreen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/14 Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0763 by bit configuration check, e.g. of formats or tags
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1044 with specific ECC/EDC distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/128 for dedicated transfers to a network for protocol converters G06F13/387
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/26 with priority control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/37 using a physical-position-dependent priority, e.g. daisy chain, round robin or token passing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4213 with asynchronous protocol
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/521 Atomic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4812 by interrupt, e.g. masked
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4825 Interrupt from clock, e.g. time of day
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 : the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 : Mutual exclusion algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 : Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 : Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/022 : using memory planes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 : Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier

Abstract

A man-machine interface for use with industrial processes is disclosed having the capability of design and configuration of the interrelationship of components forming an overall industrial process. The man-machine interface further provides operator use, including process monitoring and control, as well as alarm annunciation. Most user interaction with the man-machine interface is performed through a color CRT monitor having a touch panel on the surface of the CRT screen. Operator use may be limited to touch panel interaction while configurer and designer use normally further includes use of a keyboard.

The man-machine interface utilizes distributed processing and incorporates a high level graphic language. The graphic language facilitates real time graphic display implementation through use of dynamic and static variables. Variable types are dynamically associated with variable values so that variables can undergo type changes without detrimental effect. Video bit bangers and shifters further enhance the versatility and ease of implementing rapid modifications of graphic displays. The man-machine interface further incorporates a new bus structure including a new bus arbitration technique, a unidirectional memory boundary protection mechanism, an improved interrupt system, and an improved watchdog timer circuit.

Claims

1. A man-machine interface for design, configuration and operation of an interconnected external process control system comprising:

(A) a monitor having means for the display of information to the designer, configurer and operator, and for the receipt of information from the designer, configurer and operator;

(B) means for generating video signals in response to graphic commands and for presenting an overall display on the monitor corresponding to the received graphic commands;

(C) means for processing information, including the processing of designer, configurer and operator information, said information including the updating of database variables associated with the process control system, and further for generating graphic commands for use by the video signal generating means, wherein the graphic commands may be referenced to database variables

(D) means for the storage of randomly addressable information, said information including a high level graphic language for defining and implementing the graphic commands and variables, the high level graphics languages including means, in association with said monitor information receipt means, for the creation of displays and subpictures, wherein subpictures are collections of user selected or predefined display language commands that each perform a logical function, including functions that perform graphics, and wherein displays are collections of one or more subpictures that may be graphical in nature;

wherein the created subpicture commands are selected in static or dynamic mode, wherein if selected in static mode, the features drawn are assumed to be unaffected by database variables and such features are therefore only drawn once on the monitor, and wherein if the commands are selected in dynamic mode, bhe features are assumed to be affected by database variables and are redrawn at a predetermined rate on the monitor means so that the dynamic commands of the subpictures displayed on the monitor can be rapidly updated;

(E) means for communicating with the external process control system so that the process control system can be designed, configured and monitored by the man-machine interface; and

(F) means for the transfer of information between the monitor, video generating means, the processing means, the memory storage means, and communicating means.

2. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1, further wherein the graphic language for presentation of information on the monitor further uses variables whose types are determined by the value os the variable on a dynamic basis;

whereby the variable type can change for the same variable as it is used in the design, configuration, or operation of an external process control system.

3. A man-machine interface as defined on claim 1, wherein the graphic commands further define default variables so that the video generating means can generate an overall display even if some of the variables within the commands defining the overall display are undefined.

4. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitor is of the raster scan type and further wherein the video generating means comprises a video central processing unit (video CPU) for interpreting graphic commands from the processing means and also comprises a bit map memory for storage of information for each pixel of the monitor for each primary color presentable on the monitor, and wherein said video generating means further comprises means for performing Boolean operations on data read from the bit map memory and data received from the video CPU for a corresponding pixel, wherein the result of the Boolean operation is written back into the same memory location of the bit map memory;

thereby providing that the video data to be presented on the monitor can be rapidly altered in the bit map memory without the need for the video CPU to perform read, bit manipulation, and write operations to each memory location in the bit map memory for which a change is desired.

5. A man-machine interface as defined in claims 1 or 4, wherein the video generating means further comprises means for performing bit shift operations for the bits associated with any addressable memory locations in the bit map memory.

6. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 5, wherein the bit shift operations includes:

(A) to shift the bits in a byte one bit to the right, with wraparound;

(B) to shift the bits in a byte one bit to the left, with wraparound; and

(C) to shift the bits in oen byte to an adjacent vertical byte.

7. A man-machine interface as defined in claims 1 or 4 wherein the monitor includes a touch screen and wherein the monitor receives information from said touch screen.

8. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 7, further comprising a keyboard communicating with said monitor, and wherein information is further received by said keyboard.

9. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 4, wherein the video generating means further comprises a zone map and color palettes, each palette having a plurality of color entries (color RAM) wherein the monitor screen is divided into a plurality of zones, each zone defining a predetermined number of possible color types, each pixel in each zone defined in the bit map memory for each color plane, wherein the actual color presented to the monitor as associated by a particular display, corresponds to one of the color palettes for each zone and to one of the entries of the selected palette for each pixel in the corresponding zone.

10. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1, wherein the means for the transfer of information comprises an overall bus having a public bus and a private bus, the public interconnected between each of the means which communicate information among themselves and the private bus interconnected between one or more pairs of means for the private transfer of information between the means forming each pair.

11. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 10, wherein the overall bus supports two independent address spaces, one for memory and another for input/output.

12. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 10, wherein the overall bus transfers signals in the following classes,

(1) control lines,

(2) address lines,

(3) data lines,

(4) interrupt lines,

(5) bus exchange lines.

13. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 12, wherein the overall bus comprises 200 lines of which 60 lines are dedicated to the private bus and the remaining lines are dedicated to the public bus.

14. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 10, 12, or 13, wherein each module which communicates on the public bus comprises means for arbitrating control of the public bus (bus ownership) for the transfer or receipt of information from another means which can communicate on the public bus, and wherein this bus arbitrating means results in bus ownership being changed from one means to another on a rotating prioritized basis and wherein the public bus comprises bus priority lines, a bus busy line, and a common bus request line for indicating to the means communicating on the bus the priority status of the other means and the state of the public bus at any particular time.

15. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 14, wherein the processing means incorporates a central processing unit module (CPU module) which communicates with the memory means via the private bus and further wherein the man-machine interface comprises a second central processing unit module which communicates only on the public bus, and wherein the second central processing unit module (second CPU module) is provided privileged access to the public bus so that the rotating priority bus arbitration mechanism is altered so that all other means communicating on the bus have access to the bus on a serial prioritized basis but wherein the second CPU module has access to the bus on a 50% duty cycle basis and wherein the bus arbitration means for each means further comprises means for storing information regarding the previous public bus owner whenever bus control is transferred to the second CPU module so that public bus ownership can be transferred back to the previous bus owner by the second CPU module.

16. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 15, wherein the bus comprises slot number lines which are used by each means communicating on the public bus so as to identify its location in the overall man-machine interface with respect to the public bus so that data transfers can be made to and from specific means on the bus through information contained in the slot numbers.

17. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 14, wherein the bus comprises slot number lines which are used by each means communicating oh the public bus so as to identify its location in the overall man-machine interface with respect to the public bus so that data transfers can be made to and from specific means on the bus through information contained in the slot numbers.

18. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1 or 9, further comprising a soft interrupt mechanism for generating soft interrupts between a first means and a second means, both of which communicate with each other on the communicating means;

wherein the soft interrupt mechanism comprises a dedicated area in the memory means for the storage of messages from the first means to be implemented by second means, wherein the first means wishing to interrupt the second means places a message in this dedicated memory area and sends an interrupt signal to the second means;

whereby the second means when interrupted goes to the dedicated memory area which is reserved for it to read and execute its message.

19. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 18, wherein the dedicated memory area for the storage of messages for each of the means which can communicate on the bus, allows multiple messages to be stored for each of said means so that said multiple messages can be executed sequentially by the second means.

20. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1 wherein at least some of the means incorporate an improved watchdog timeout mechanism, said mechanism requiring that different bit patterns be received by the watchdog mechanism on a predefined basis in order for the mechanism to be reinitialized, thereby preventing a time-out;

and further wherein the watchdog mechanism requires that these varying bit patterns be received without the receipt of other information therebetween.

21. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 24, wherein the watchdog timer mechanism further comprises an arming circuit for disabling the output of the watchdog timer during power-up initialization so as to prevent an inadvertent timeout of the watchdog mechanism during the period of time that the means on which the mechanism is associated is being initialized.

22. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 1, wherein the graphic commands include the following:

move absolute,

move relative,

draw line,

draw box,

start polygon fill,

end polygon fill, and

draw arc.

23. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 22, wherein the graphic commands include alphanumeric characters.

24. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 10, wherein the memory means has a selectable region that is only accessible through the private bus.

25. A man-machine interface for design, configuration and operation of an interconnected external process control system comprising:

(A) a monitor of the raster scan type having means for the display of information to the designer, configurer and operator, and for the receipt of information from the designer, configurer and operator;

(B) means for generating video signals in response to graphic commands and for presenting an overall display on the monitor corresponding to the received graphic commands, wherein the video generating means comprises a video central processing unit (video CPU) for interpreting graphic commands from the processing means and also comprises a bit map memory for storage of information for each pixel of the monitor for each primary color presentable on the monitor, and wherein said video generating means further comprises means for performing Boolean operations on data read from the bit map memory and data received from the video CPU for a corresponding pixel, wherein the result of the Boolean operation is written back into the same memory location of the bit map memory;

thereby providing that the video data to be presented on the monitor can be rapidly altered in the bit map memory without the need for the video CPU to perform read, bit manipulation, and write operations to each memory location in the bit map memory for which a change is desired;

(C) means for processing information, including the processing of designer, configurer and operator information, said information including the updating of database variables associated with the process control system, and further for generating graphic commands for use by the video signal generating means, wherein the graphic commands may be referenced to database variables;

(D) means for the storage of randomly addressable information, said information including a high level graphic language for defining and implementing the graphic commands and variables;

(E) means for communicating with the external process control system so that the process control system can be designed, configured and monitored by the man-machine interface; and

(F) means for the transfer of information between the monitor, video generating means, the processing means, the memory storage means, and communicating means.

26. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 25, wherein the video generating means further comprises means for performing bit shift operations for the bits associated with any addressable memory locations in the bit map memory.

27. A man-machine interrace as defined in claim 26, wherein the bit shift operations include:

(A) to shift the bits in a byte one bit to the right, with wraparound;

(B) to shift the bits in a byte one bit to the left, with wraparound; and

(C) to shift the bits in one byte to an adjacent vertical byte.

28. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 27, wherein the monitor includes a touch screen and wherein the monitor receives information from said touch screen.

29. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 28, further comprising a keyboard communicating with said monitor, and wherein information is further received by said keyboard.

30. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 25, wherein the video generating means further comprises a zone map and color palettes, each palette having a plurality of color entries (color RAM) wherein the monitor screen is divided into a plurality of zones, each zone defining a predetermined number of possible color types, each pixel in each zone defined in the bit map memory for each color plane, wherein the actual color presented to the monitor corresponds to one of the color palettes for each zone and to one of the entries of the selected palette for each pixel in the corresponding zone.

31. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 30, further comprising a soft interrupt mechanism for generating soft interrupts between a first means and a second means, both of which communicate with each other on the communicating means;

wherein the soft interrupt mechanism comprises a dedicated area in the memory means for the storage of messages from the first means to be implemented by the second means, wherein the first means wishing to interrupt the second means places a message in this dedicated memory area and sends an interrupt signal to the second means;

whereby the second means when interrupted goes to the dedicated memory area which is reserved for it to read and execute its message.

32. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 31, wherein the dedicated memory area for the storage of messages for each of the means which can communicate on the bus, allows multiple messages to be stored for each of said means so that said multiple messages can be executed sequentially by the second means.

33. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 25, wherein at least some of the means incorporate an improved watchdog timeout mechanism, said mechanism requiring that different bit patterns be received by the watchdog mechanism on a predefined basis in order for the mechanism to be reinitialized, thereby preventing a time-out;

and further wherein the watchdog mechanism requires that these varying bit patterns be received without the receipt of other information therebetween.

34. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 33, wherein the watchdog timer mechanism further comprises an arming circuit for disabling the output of the watchdog timer during power-up initialization so as to prevent an inadvertent time-out of the watchdog mechanism during the period of time that the means on which the mechanism is associated is being initialized.

35. A man-machine interface for design, configuration and operation of an interconnected external process control system comprising:

(A) a monitor having means for the display of information to the designer, configurer and operator, and for the receipt of information from the designer, configurer and operator;

(B) means for generating video signals in response to graphic commands and for presenting an overall display on the monitor corresponding to the received graphic commands;

(C) means for processing information, including the processing of designer, configurer and operator information, and further for generating graphic commands for use by the video signal generating means;

(D) means for the storage of randomly addressable information, said information including a high level graphic language for defining and implementing the graphic commands and variables;

(E) means for communicating with the external process control system so that the process control system can be designed, configured and monitored by the man-machine interface; and

(F) means for the transfer of information between the monitor, video generating means, the processing means, the memory storage means, and communicating means, said transfer means comprising an overall bus having a public bus and a private bus, the public bus interconnected between each of the means which communicate information among themselves and the private bus interconnected between one or more pairs of means for the private transfer of information between the means forming each pair.

36. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 35, wherein the overall bus supports two independent address spaces, one for memory and another for input/output.

37. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 35, wherein the overall bus transfers signals in the following classes:

(1) control lines,

(2) address lines,

(3) data lines,

(4) interrupt lines,

(5) bus exchange lines.

38. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 37, wherein the overall bus comprises 200 lines of which 60 lines are dedicated to the private bus and the remaining lines are dedicated to the public bus.

39. A man-machine interface as defined in claims 38, wherein each module which communicates on the public bus comprises means for arbitrating control of the public bus (bus ownership) for the transfer or receipt of information from another means which can communicate on the public bus, and wherein this bus arbitrating means results in bus ownership being changed from one means to another on a rotating prioritized basis and wherein the public bus comprises bus priority lines, a bus busy line, and a common bus request line for indicating to the means communicating on the bus the priority status of the other means and the state of the public bus at any particular time.

40. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 39, wherein the processing means incorporates a central processing unit module (CPU module) which communicates with the memory means via the private bus and further wherein the man-machine interface comprises a second central processing unit module which communicates only on the public bus, and wherein the second central processing unit module (second CPU module) is provided privileged access to the public bus so that the rotating priority bus arbitration mechanism is altered so that all other means communicating on the bus have access to the bus on a serial prioritized basis but wherein the second CPU module has access to the bus on a 50% duty cycle basis and wherein the bus arbitration means for each means further comprises means for storing information regarding the previous public bus owner whenever bus control is transferred to the second CPU module so that public bus ownership can be transferred back to the previous bus owner by the second CPU module.

41. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 40, wherein the bus comprises slot number lines which are used by each means communicating on the public bus so as to identify its location in the overall man-machine interface with respect to the public bus so that data transfers can be made to and from specific means on the bus through information contained in the slot numbers.

42. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 35, wherein at least some of the means incorporate an improved watchdog timeout mechanism, said mechanism requiring that different bit patterns be received by the watchdog mechanism on a predefined basis in order for the mechanism to be reinitialized, thereby preventing a time-out;

and further wherein the watchdog mechanism requires that these varying bit patterns be received without the receipt of other information therebetween.

43. A man-machine interface as defined in claim 42, wherein the watchdog timer mechanism further comprises an arming circuit for disabling the output of the watchdog timer during power-up initialization so as to prevent an inadvertent time-out of the watchdog mechanism during the period of time that the means on which the mechanism is associated is being initialized.